Tackling the gift world, one vase at a time!
😟 It was more like apprehension than worry when I first stuck my toe into the muddy waters of attracting retail outlets to stock my vases. Sale or return was all well and good, many retailers will happily take on stock if there's no financial outlay, but I wanted to know if the product was attractive enough for people to order their stock and pay for it up front. The only way to do this is to book space at a gift show.
At the time (2006?) there was a Business Forum in Northumberland who were keen to help small businesses take off. They kindly offered us a very small space (at vastly reduced rates) at the British Craft Trade Fair. This is an annual show which takes place in Harrogate, and is the best place for retailers and gallery owners to see exclusively hand-made British products.
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| My BCTF stand was similar to this one. |
Well the space was small, only a metre wide and two metres tall, but I was grateful for the opportunity. I arranged as many vases as I could, as artistically as I could and waited nervously for the doors to open.
It was a slow start.
Trade Buyers are a mixed bag. Shops, Galleries Museums, Tourist Information Centres, National Trust, Garden Centres, to name but a few. They only have so much money to spend and they need to feel that the product will sell in their particular market. So they like to look at everything, often twice, making notes as they go, before they feel they can commit to an order.
But eventually the orders started coming! OK, I wasn't going to make a fortune, but it was a good start. As well as the promise of actually being paid, I was getting a lot of feedback and suggestions about colour combinations and current trends. It was a really worthwhile experience.
So I'd gained a little confidence, had some new ideas, and thought I was ready to take on another Gift Fair, something bigger. The obvious choice seemed to be the Home & Gift Fair, again in beautiful Harrogate. This is a much larger affair, and has all kinds of different products from around the world, not just hand-made things from a little "Cottage Industry" like mine.
There was a good chance my display would be entirely overshadowed by so many sparkly imported things so I was going to have to make an enormous effort, Hmm.
More to follow...
